The Energy Of Love & Growth

By: Heather Blanchard

Our dog Louie is a neighborhood favorite. Neighbors come into the yard to play with him and volunteer to walk him. They ask where he is when we’re out and he isn’t with us. It’s the unconditional love and attention he gives to others that keeps them coming back. He just wants to play, cuddle and get a belly rub.

I smiled as I watched him frolic around with neighbors the other day and thought about his popularity. If we all exuded the energy and joy a dog gives to others our relationships would flourish. They’d be absolutely amazing!

 “The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.” – Audrey Hepburn 

I receive a weekly email from Holstee – a company founded to provide tools and inspiration to live a more meaningful life. From @holstee.com I get blogs, book suggestions and articles, and a few weeks ago received one titled Tend Your Garden. In this blog was a great saying – “the grass is always greener where you water it.” The author Kim VL wrote “every relationship is like a garden. Without consistent attention and care, even the most promising connection will wither.”  

We must nurture relationships so they can continue to grow. It requires time and energy even when we’re busy. It requires presence when we’re with someone we love – without distractions that steal our attention away. And relationships require care. If they feel distant, we need to reach out more, if they feel disjointed, we need to work to get them back on track. If we treated all relationships as well as our pets, that unconditional puppy-like love would come bountifully back to us.

The author of this blog ends by saying we can apply the metaphor of tending to a garden in all areas of our lives. If something isn’t going your way, spend time in the soil working to make it grow and bloom. When we’re inconsistent, things we want stay out of reach – the promotion, the fitness goal, the savings goal, the vacation. It takes sustained effort and a little bit of faith, but is so worth it to create your vision of a beautiful life.

XOXO, Heather